The present invention relates to a device for driving a rotary tool for a food-processing apparatus, and also to a food-processing apparatus equipped with this drive device.
In the sense of the invention, such an apparatus processes the foods placed in it, particularly by means of pressing, cutting, grating or slicing. It applies to all type of foods, be these fruit or vegetables, fish or meat.
This processing apparatus may be used in the hotel or catering trades. By way of non-limiting examples, it may be a juice extractor for fruit and vegetables, a conical citrus-fruit squeezer, a grater disc, or a vegetable-cutting disc.
In the case of a juice extractor, it comprises a fixed plinth to which a rotary basket is removably attached. This basket comprises a base, forming a grater, and also lateral walls extending from this base, these walls constituting a sieve.
A lid is also provided, and in the lid there is a chute allowing the introduction of fruit and vegetables. During operation, the fruit and vegetable are kept in contact with the grater, which is rotating at high speed, by means of the action of a push-device handled by the user.
Under these conditions, the fruit or vegetables are shredded in the vicinity of this grater. The sieve then retains the pulp thus formed, whilst allowing the juice to flow.
This pulp is then evacuated through the effect of centrifugal force towards the upper part of the basket and is then recovered in a pulp reservoir. Furthermore, the liquid juice, having passed through the walls of the sieve, is collected in a juice receptacle.
The basket is rotated by a corresponding drive device. This device comprises, in a known manner, a drive head integral with a shaft moved through the action of an electric motor. This drive head is fixed by being fitted closely in the inner volume of a base part with which the basket is provided.
The invention proposes to produce a food-processing apparatus of the type described above, in which the rotary tool can be reliably secured on the drive head during operation.
The invention also aims to propose a food-processing device in which the rotary tool can be placed on the drive head and can be removed therefrom in a particularly easy manner.
Finally, the invention aims to propose a food-processing apparatus in which the device for driving the rotary tool can be cleaned easily and conveniently.
To this end, a subject of the invention is a device for driving, in rotation, a rotary tool for a food-processing apparatus, particularly a basket of a fruit and vegetable juice extractor, it being possible for this tool to be fixed removably onto a plinth of the processing apparatus, this device comprising a rotary shaft integral with a drive head, capable of being fitted closely into a base part of the tool, characterized in that this drive head is provided with at least two studs, which can move between a radially set-back rest position and a radially separate use position, in which each stud is engaged in the base part, and in that an elastic membrane is provided for protecting these studs, elastically returning these studs towards their rest position.
A further subject of the invention is a food-processing apparatus, particularly a juice extractor for fruit and vegetables, comprising a plinth, a rotary tool, particularly a basket, fixed removably on this plinth, and also a device for driving this tool in rotation, characterized in that this drive device is as defined above.